09.10.2018 10:00

Emacs LISP is a programming language, that most of Emacs is implemented
in, except for a small C core. This is what you use to configure Emacs
or to extend it. I’m not going to do a real introduction to it here. The
Emacs LISP introduction available in Emacs or on the GNU website is a
great place to start.

LISP looks weird, but it is beautiful, and you either learn to accept it
or love it once you get used to it. But there are a few things you
should know that I thought was useful while I was learning to code in
LISP for the first time.

Everything is a function in lisp. You don’t have operators like = or
!, but instead everything is a function. What you would write as
functionName(param1, param2) in Java or C would be (function-name param1
param2) in LISP. It is not that different to be honest. e

It can take a while to get used to it, but I honestly love it. My dream
job is to have one where I can write LISP all day.

09.10.2018 06:57

09.10.2018 06:57

09.10.2018 06:56

08.10.2018 10:00

I have been planning to do a blog post series about Emacs for a while
now. This is not about using emacs however. It is about the
configuration of Emacs.

There are two editors that programmers and power users have relied on
for a really long time, both of them started in the second half of the
70s. VI and Emacs. Both are still alive today, not in the exact same
form they started out in, but the same prinicipal form. VI lives today
as VIM and NeoVIM. And Emacs lives today as GNU Emacs.

Emacs is a very powerful editor, that can be configured to do more or
less anything. Emacs can be extended and customized through Emacs LISP.
This could simple, like changing a font or more complex like writing an
entire email client.

When you start using software that started before most of the
conventions for naming and keyboard shortscuts was coined, you should
expect them to be a little bit different. And there is no expection for
Emacs. The two things that are the most different are the Emacs Keyboard
Shortcuts and the naming conventions for some stuff.

In Emacs the Frame is what most computer users calls a Window, and a
window can be divided into multiple windows. You can split a window
horizontally or vertically. Then you have the buffers. A buffer is some
kind of content, it can be a file, a unsaved file or something more like
an app. All of these can be visible in none, one or multiple windows.

This is a very powerful concept, because you can have lets say 100
buffers open, and at any time re-configure what is shown without closing
them. Or if you work on a large file have two of that buffer open at
once.

Emacs keyboard shortcuts are kind of weird, and they don’t follow normal
conventions like Control / Command S etc. They are weird, and you can
customize it how you like. But they are very powerful. And how you use
them are up to you.

There are however two things you should learn imediatly, C- means
Control + something and M- means Alt + something on most systems.

08.10.2018 10:00

You can find cheap ink, and expensive inkk. More expensive bottles are
sometimes larger, but other times not. The price range of inks, I’m
talking about fountain pen inks by the way, vary from around $5 to a
little bit under $40. The cheapest from JetPens is about $0,55 per ML
while $0,74.

If you compare the price of ink to the other part of this that you
actually use up - paper. Then you will realise that ink is not that
expensive. When I wrote a lot with and exclusivly with fountain pens, I
used maybe close to three 50 ml bottles a year, but I think most people
would struggle with using one a year. I don’t know the number, but
imagine how many notebooks of your choice you need to buy to use all of
that ink.

If you use Pilot Iroshizuku inks and Leuchtturm1917 notebooks, you spend
about the same per bottle of ink that you spend on a A5 notebook, but I
think you need at least 20 notebooks if not more to use all of that ink.

I get that some people don’t have that much disposable inkcome, and I
get that those of you that this applies to have some different
priorities, but I personally went with Pilot Iroshizuku inks even when I
was on a tight budget because I enjoyed using it so much more than
cheaper inks. If you like me have some disposable income to use on this
hobby, I think there are much better places to how much money you spend
than inks. Because you get a bottle and it lasts forever. Notebooks are
a place where you can save a lot of money. And not buying pens are
another.